An important aspect of any computing system is the interface between a human user and a computer. An early type of interface was text based. In a text based interface a user communicates with the computer by typing text characters with a keyboard and the computer communicates with the user by displaying text characters on a display screen or monitor. Recently, graphical user interfaces (GUIs) have become increasingly popular. In a GUI, a computer communicates with a user by displaying graphics, including text and images, on a monitor and the user communicates with the computer by typing in textual commands and/or by manipulating the displayed images with a pointing device such as, for example, a mouse, track ball, pressure-sensitive pad, electronic stylus or pen, or like devices.
Many GUIs are implemented in a operating environment referred to as a window environment. In the window environment, the display on the monitor of the computer is represented as an electronic “desktop,” each application program available on the computer may be represented as an “icon” on the desktop, and each application program running on the computer may be represented as one or more electronic “sheets” displayed in regions of the monitor referred to as “windows.”
Generally speaking, an application program presents information to the user through a window by drawing or “rendering” images, graphics or text within the window region. The user communicates with the application program by selecting objects in the window region with a cursor, which is controlled by a pointing device, and/or also by typing information into the keyboard. In the window environment, the objects and the window regions may be manipulated or moved about the desktop, and changed in size and appearance so that the user can arrange and/or customize the appearance of the desktop in a convenient manner. The manipulation of an object by using a pointing device to capture and move the object somewhere else on the desktop, from one window region to another window region or within a window region, is generally referred to as a “drag and drop” operation.
The window environment described above is generally part of the computer's operating system. The operating system also typically includes utility programs that enable the computer system to perform basic tasks, such as rendering objects on the display monitor, storing and retrieving information on a memory device, performing file operations and communicating with a network. The application programs interact with the operating system to provide a direct interface with the user and higher level functionality such as, for example, to perform word processing or other specific tasks. Accordingly, the computer includes mechanisms for coordinating the operation of the operating system and application programs, including the arrangement of objects on the display monitor.
Computer processing systems are often implemented in network configurations such as “client/server” configurations. In client/server configurations, a number of personal computers, work stations, portable and/or handheld devices or the like (“clients”) are linked and communicate with one or more host computers (“servers”). The servers process requests from the clients for information and/or application programs shared by the clients over the network. Today, many local and wide area public and private networks are interconnected to form a world-wide network of networks generally referred to as the Internet. The Internet permits access to a wealth of information and services stored at individual nodes or sites on the network. A particularly important subset of the Internet is the World Wide Web or “web.” The web introduces graphics capabilities to Internet communications.
Sites on the web, generally referred to as web sites, are connected or linked together using a special communication protocol such as, for example, Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP), and a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that includes a specific syntax for defining a network connection on the web. HTTP permits an exchange of information between users and the web sites that contains subject matter of interest to the users. From a user's prospective, the web appears as a collection of viewable documents, or web pages, residing at the various web sites. A user accesses the web pages by executing software, generally referred to as a web browser. A web browser running on the user's computer sends instructions (including the desired URL) for connecting to a specified host computer (i.e., web server) that stores web pages of interest to the user. A link, such as a hyperlink, is created under the communication protocol. By selecting links and employing a web browser, a user may “navigate” from one document to another, and from one web site to another, to access informational content and services available across the web.
One of the fastest growing uses of the Internet is as a vehicle of commerce. The world-wide access achieved by use of the web makes the web ideal for both small and large businesses who may enter the market by “launching” web sites offering their goods and/or services for sale. As a result, the informational content and services available to users of the web are considerable and are growing more so, everyday.
Despite the success of the web, problems persist for both users and businesses. For example, users need to locate items or services of interest from the vast number of sites on the web and, similarly, businesses need to distinguish themselves from competition to attract and hold the interests of desirable customers.
Search engines assist users in locating content and services of interest. However, even armed with searching tools, locating and retrieving informational content and services of interest from the many hundreds of thousands of web sites currently operating over the web may be cumbersome. The results of searches typically yield so many web sites that the effort to review the results and narrow the search may be overly cumbersome.
To distinguish their goods and/or services on the web, businesses often advertise their web site names in conventional media such as television and/or print advertisements. Businesses may also employ a web based solution in which rich, visually pleasing advertisements are incorporated in a number of popular web sites. The advertisements, generally referred to as “banner ads,” often include links to the business' web site. Therefore, when the banner ad is selected, the user is transferred to the business web site where further information regarding the goods/services are displayed.
A perceived disadvantage of existing systems and methods for locating sites of interest and/or for attracting customers is that the links to the sites of interest generally must be acted upon from the page they are displayed or they are lost. In other words, conventional systems and methods present web sites that may include static links to other web sites. If a user is interested in viewing the other web site then the user must navigate to it or record the URL of the site for later use. As can be appreciated, it may be undesirable for the user to leave the current site to follow the link to the other site as the user may be performing an important and/or time sensitive task. As a result, a potentially valuable marketing or sales opportunity may be lost.
Facilities presently exist for storing an address (URL) of a web site currently being displayed. One such facility is referred to as a “bookmark.” Once created, bookmarks offer a means of retrieving the URL of a particular web site and directing the user's browser to display the page residing at the URL. Bookmarks eliminate the need for the user to manually enter the URL of a site of interest or to retrace (re-navigate) a path through the Internet to arrive at the web site through a known link. However, bookmarks are limited in two respects. Firstly, a web page must be displayed before the URL corresponding to the web page can be stored as a bookmark. Secondly, bookmarks do not maintain information pertaining to a previous operating state of the web site. For example, a bookmark may return a user to a previously displayed web page, such as a form for completing a commercial transaction, but information that may have been completed on the form is generally not saved. That is, the completed information is generally not stored unless the information is made available through another tracking facility referred to as a “cookie.” Cookies maintain tracking information on the user's computer that may be referenced once the browser reloads the desired web page and invokes the application included therein. Once the application is invoked, information that was previously entered and stored in the cookie may be restored in the application. Cookies, however, are generally time-sensitive and may expire before a user attempts to re-navigate to the site of interest. Also, cookies are only stored on the computer where the original transaction occurred. If the user accesses the site from another computer, the tracking information is not available.
Therefore, there is a need for storing an interactive link on a user's computer which, when selected, retrieves and presents applications and/or information stored at remote locations across the network. There is also a need for the interactive link to include facilities for restoring previous operating states of the application as the application is re-presented at a user's computer.